Horror River of Wrath by Alexandrea Weis and Lucas Astor

Leslie Moore is struggling to get through her last semester at St. Benedict High. Even her relationship with her boyfriend, Derek, is falling apart. But after receding floodwaters from the Bogue Falaya River expose the bones of a woman, Leslie becomes obsessed with tracking down the killer.

Sightings of an apparition haunting The Abbey send Leslie and her friends back to the scene of the horrors from last Halloween, but no one is prepared for what they find.

After a stranger—the handsome Luke Cross—arrives in town, another girl goes missing, and the sheriff suspects the newcomer is hiding something. Leslie believes the Devereaux family is connected to everything going wrong in St. Benedict. And she means to uncover the truth, no matter the cost.

Not all secrets can be kept silent. Some eventually find their way home.

The Big Thrill caught up to the authors to learn more about their latest thriller, the second installment of the St. Benedict series, RIVER OF WRATH:

Alexandrea Weis

No spoilers, but what can you tell us about your book that we won’t find in the jacket copy or the PR material?

In RIVER OF WRATH, we find the after-effects of Beau’s cruelty. How the girls he hurt survive and how each cope with their trauma. Everyone deals with pain in various ways, and these girls are no different, but the influence of the Devereaux family also changes their fate. We get hints of where Beau’s madness comes from and learn more about Gage Devereaux. There is also more revealed about the Devereaux family and their sordid past.

Without spoilers, are there any genre conventions you wanted to upend or challenge with this book?

The St. Benedict series is an Adult series with a cross of YA and Adult POVs since the tale is as much about the teenagers of St. Benedict as their parents, but the themes are very mature. The psychological horror/thriller genres were explored in book one, River of Ashes. However, with book two, RIVER OF WRATH, we delve more into a murder mystery with horror elements and paranormal overtones woven in.

Which took shape first: plot, character, or setting?

Since River of Ashes, Book One in the St. Benedict series, defined the characters and setting, the plot and the evolution of the mystery of the Devereaux family took center stage in this story. The characters were as essential to this story as in Book One, and we learn more about them and their pasts, especially Gage Devereaux. He slowly exposes more of his twisted personality.

Alexandrea Weis, RN-CS, PhD, is a multi-award-winning author, advanced practice registered nurse, and historian who was born and raised in the French Quarter. She has taught at major universities and worked in nursing for thirty years, dealing with victims of sexual assault, abuse, and mental illness in a clinical setting at New Orleans area hospitals.

Raised in the motion picture industry as the daughter of a director, Weis learned to tell stories from a different perspective. She grew up on movie sets from Live and Let Die with Roger Moore to My Name is Nobody starring Henry Fonda. The first person to give her writing advice was Tennessee Williams, a family friend. A permitted/certified wildlife rehabber with Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, Weis rescues orphaned and injured animals. She lives with her husband and pets outside of New Orleans. Weis is a member of the International Thriller Writers (ITW) and the Horror Writers Association (HWA).

To learn more about the author and her work, please visit her website.

Co-author Lucas Astor is an award-winning author and poet with a penchant for telling stories that delve into the dark side of the human psyche. He likes to explore the evil that exists not just in the world, but right next door, behind a smiling face. Astor is from New York, has resided in Central America and the Middle East, and traveled throughout Europe. He currently lives outside of Nashville, TN.